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Econintersect: Subway is now the world's largest restaurant chain with 1,012 more locations than McDonald's. At the end of 2010, Subway had 33,749 stores vs. 32,737 for McDonald's. Micky D's is still the winner in revenue with $24 billion in revenue last year. Subway had $15.2 billion.

Follow up:

Comparison of profits is not possible, however, because privately held Subway does not disclose them.

Subway has followed a franchising model similar to the one that McDonald's has used to build their giant business. Subway has a smaller equipment footprint than McDonald's which permits it to fit into more unusual locations. From The Wall Street Journal:

Subway has achieved its rapid growth, in part, by opening outlets in non-traditional locations such as an automobile showroom in California, an appliance store in Brazil, a ferry terminal in Seattle, a riverboat in Germany, a zoo in Taiwan, a Goodwill store in South Carolina, a high school in Detroit and a church in Buffalo, New York.

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